Monogamy

All the present controversies about the family are really discussions about monogamy. About what keeps people together and why they should stay together. Now, in a book of 121 aphorisms, Adam Phillips asks why we all believe in monogamy, and why we find it so difficult to think about.Everyone knows that most people, however much they may love their partner, are capable of loving and desiring more than one person at a time. It may be reassuring, but it is in fact very demanding - and often cruel - to assume that only one other person can give us what we want.At least in sexual matters, sharing seems to go deeply against the grain. Monogamy is so much taken for granted as the foundation of the family and of family values that, as with anything that seems essential, we are very wary of being critical of it. But, as Adam Phillips suggests, it is surely worth wondering why the faithful couple has such a hold on our imagination, and how it has come to be such an ideal.

Adam Phillips was formerly Principal Child Psychotherapist at Charing Cross Hospital in London. He is the author of, most recently, Darwin's Worms, Promises, Promises, Equals and Houdini's Box, and he is the Series Editor of the new Penguin Freud translations.

All the present controversies about the family are really discussions about monogamy. About what keeps people together and why they should stay together. Now, in a book of 121 aphorisms, Adam Phillips asks why we all believe in monogamy, and why we find it so difficult to think about. Everyone knows that most people, however much they may love their partner, are capable of loving and desiring more than one person at a time. It may be reassuring, but it is in fact very demanding - and often cruel - to assume that only one other person can give us what we want. At least in sexual matters, sharing seems to go deeply against the grain. Monogamy is so much taken for granted as the foundation of the family and of family values that, as with anything that seems essential, we are very wary of being critical of it. But, as Adam Phillips suggests, it is surely worth wondering why the faithful couple has such a hold on our imagination, and how it has come to be such an ideal.

This item has a special returns policy. Please read it carefully.

Authorized returns, for Grantham Book Services (GBS) Third Party Publishers, should be sent to:

Grantham Book Services Returns Centre
Trent Road
Grantham
Lincolnshire
NG31 7XQ